Considerations and costs of disclosing study findings to research participants

Abstract

Funding agencies should support the allocation and use of research monies in an ethical manner and, thus, should support the appropriate disclosure of results to individual participants and to communities.8 However, the disclosure of results has economic implications for researchers in planning their budgets and for funding agencies in determining an appropriate level and duration of funding. In this article, we briefly review the rationale for offering to disclose research results, focus on specific factors that influence the cost of such a practice and suggest an approach for researchers and funding agencies to consider when developing or assessing research grant applications.